Innovation drives economic growth and creates skilled, high-wage jobs. To maintain a high standard of living for its citizens, the United States must continue to produce new, high quality products and we must sell them in the global marketplace. As Secretary John Bryson said recently, the U.S. must “Build it here and sell it everywhere.”

Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) helps U.S. companies innovate and improve their global competitiveness by providing world class laboratory results and services, business and technology assistance, and research grants.

As we look to the start of a new calendar year, here are just a few numbers that describe how NIST helps U.S. industry and science to create and retain jobs through an innovation-based economy:

8 billion: The number of times per day that computers across the United States and the world were synchronized with NIST official time over the Internet by the end of FY2011 using the automated NIST Internet Time Service. This number is continually growing. NIST official time is essential for everything from time stamping electronic financial transactions to operation of the U.S. electrical grid to precision timing of computer networks.

$8.3 billion: The amount of new and retained sales generated in FY2010 through business and technology assistance from the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership according to an FY2011 survey of participating U.S. companies. Through a network of local centers providing services in every state and Puerto Rico, the program helps companies nationwide to create and retain jobs, increase profits, and save time and money.

Up to $5 billion: The amount of money the federal government may be able to save by 2015 by using cloud computing services and consolidating or closing 962 data centers as a result. In FY 2011, NIST issued a technology roadmap (PDF) to help speed the U.S. government’s adoption of cloud computing services. More than 1500 individuals from the public participated during FY2010 and FY2011 in NIST workshops to propose ways the government can exploit the cost advantages of cloud computing reliably and securely.

19.1 million, 32,864, and 18,195: The number of data sets downloaded from the Web, Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) sold and calibrations provided by NIST to help companies and researchers worldwide produce the highest quality products and scientific measurements. To name just a few examples, NIST data, SRMs and calibration services help high tech companies make computer chips with “wires” only 10s of billionths of a meter wide; build aircraft engines made of high strength, corrosion resistant alloys; and ensure the safety of drinking water, medical tests, and pharmaceuticals.

2900: The number of guest researchers, facility users, and other associates hosted by NIST in FY 2011 from industry, academia, and government agencies. State-of-the-art technical knowledge shared through collaborations like these supports billions of dollars in sales of U.S. products that depend in some way on advanced technologies, data, and measurements. In FY 2011, NIST also had numerous patents available for licensing, had 103 formal Cooperative Research and Development Agreements in place with companies and scientific organizations, and published about more than 1,200 research papers in the open scientific literature.

The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) has released for public comment a draft "roadmap" that
is designed to foster federal agencies' adoption of cloud computing,
support the private sector, improve the information available to
decision makers and facilitate the continued development of the cloud
computing model.

In February 2011, the government issued theFederal Cloud Computing Strategy
that describes cloud computing as a "profound economic and technical
shift (with) great potential to reduce the cost of Federal Information
Technology (IT) systems while. . . improving IT capabilities and
stimulating innovation in IT solutions."

As part of that strategy, NIST has been assigned "a central [role] in
defining and advancing standards, and collaborating with U.S.
government agency CIOs, private-sector experts and international bodies
to identify and reach consensus on cloud computing technology and
standardization priorities." U.S. Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Release 1.0 is designed to support the secure and
effective adoption of the cloud computing model by federal agencies to
reduce costs and improve services. The public comment period is open
through Dec. 2. Read the full NIST release

Kundra has called upon NIST to help accelerate the
federal government’s adoption of secure cloud computing practices by leading
efforts to develop standards and guidelines in collaboration with standards
bodies, the private sector, other government agencies and other stakeholders.

NIST scientists are demonstrating Koala, a simulator of a cloud service
model. They are using modeling and analysis methods developed to study complex
systems to understand the behavior of a cloud during both normal and highly
stressed operations. A panel on Friday, April 8, “Cloud Innovation: Math and
Science,” will explore innovative uses of the cloud and how it can be leveraged
in the scientific process.

The
Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) has issued two new draft documents on cloud computing for public
comment, including the first set of guidelines for managing security
and privacy issues in cloud computing. The agency also has set up a new
NIST Cloud Computing Collaboration website to enable two-way
communication among the cloud community and the NIST cloud research
working groups.

Cloud
computing is a way for nearly anyone or any organization with access to
the Internet to rent computer power for applications and data storage
from cloud providers who run large computers. Working on a cloud feels
the same to users, but the cloud provider performs the many management
activities required to keep computers operating and secure.

U.S.
Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra asked NIST to accelerate the
federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading
efforts to develop standards and guidelines in collaboration with
standards organizations, the private sector and other stakeholders. The
release of these new publications and the new website are part of
NIST’s work to fulfill that mission.

The publications include
The
NIST Definition of Cloud Computing, which documents years of NIST research on cloud computing, and
Guidelines on Security and Privacy in Public Cloud
Computing,
which provides an overview of the security and privacy challenges for
public cloud computing and presents recommendations that organizations
should consider when outsourcing data, applications and infrastructure
to a public cloud environment.

The new
Cloud Computing Collaboration website,
developed to foster the cloud community’s collaboration on the federal
government’s secure adoption of cloud computing, provides information
about NIST’s cloud computing program and invites public participation
on working groups that address a wide range of cloud computing topics.

The Commerce
Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) kicked off
the second Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop today at its headquarters in
Gaithersburg, Md., providing a report on
the agency’s efforts to collaboratively develop a Cloud Computing Roadmap among
multiple federal and industrial stakeholders.

NIST Director Patrick
Gallagher and U.S. Chief
Information Officer Vivek Kundra opened the two-day workshop and told hundreds
of industry and government attendees that they wanted
the information technology community's help in developing a "roadmap for action" to
increase government use of the cloud. Both stressed the need for
open discussion and participation among all stakeholders in developing policies to address challenges like
security requirements for cloud services. Cloud computing is not just a fad, Kundra
said, but represents a fundamental
shift in how chief information officers can provide cost-effective information technology
services for their organizations.

NIST held
the first Cloud Computing Workshop in May to initiate engagement
with industry to accelerate the development of cloud standards for
interoperability, portability and security; introduce NIST Cloud Computing
efforts; and discuss the federal government's experience with cloud computing.